The Avengers: Compromised
by elphieheart
Summary: Almost a year after the Battle of New York, the Council is causing problems for the Avengers. A mysterious young girl forces them to ask questions they might not want answered. (This is my first story, so please be both kind and helpful!) Cover is not mine. Ensemble cast. Mainly canon pairings. Loki x Sigyn (not comics or legends). Movieverse.
1. The Girl and the Sword

In the middle of the desert in a small town's only coffee shop, three scientists struggled to analyze the data piled ten sheets high on the table in front of them. Or rather, two scientists struggled to understand the data while one struggled to simply keep her eyes open.

"Remind me again why we're trying to do _math_ at six o'clock in the morning on a Saturday?" The bleary-eyes brunette complained, pouring herself another cup of coffee before returning her attention back to the chart in her hands. "I don't know about you two, but I can't even tell if that little blur right there is a number or a letter, never mind what it actually means." Pointing out the smudge to her neighbor, Darcy went back to focusing on keeping her head from collapsing onto the diner table. Jane sighed in frustration and examined the area her friend had indicated.

"That's because it's a coffee stain, genius." Grabbing a napkin, Jane furiously tried to blot away the brown smudge, but it only made the writing even more illegible. "Great. Now _I_ can't even read it." The scientist slammed her fist onto the table, a little more violently than she had intended.

"Jane," the third member of their party finally spoke up, "you've been trying to reconcile this data for almost three days—"

"Exactly!" Jane interrupted Dr. Selvig. "I should have results by now! But we're no closer to repairing the Einstein-Rosen Bridge than we we're five months ago!" Jane took a long, calming breath and tried to ignore the stares of the coffee patrons who were just now beginning to gather inside the small diner. "It's been over a year since New York, and almost two years since the bridge was first disconnected, and we still haven't found a way to fix it!" Jane buried her face in her hands.

"Well, yeah." Darcy agreed honestly. "But neither have any of the magical demi-god people from outer space." This comment earned her two sets of glares from her companions.

"Jane," Dr. Selvig placed his hand gently over Jane's arm. "We'll find a way. I promise."

"How can you possibly know that?" Jane looked into the eyes of her friend and mentor. He thought about it for a moment, and then smiled at her.

"Because, Jane, I don't think there is a force in the universe that can keep you two apart for very long." Silence fell over the group as none of the members could think of anything to say to one another.

The awkward moment was abruptly ended by the piercing beeps of Jane's work phone. Yanking it out her pocket, she almost dropped her coffee in excitement.

"Jane Foster."

"Dr. Foster, it's Archie Holt from the Bifrost project." Jane stood quickly, knocking her chair over. She didn't seem to notice, however.

"Mr. Holt, what is it? Is the program working? I'm putting you on speaker." She set the phone on the diner table and began frantically shoving papers into her bag. Dr. Selvig and Darcy shared a knowing look and moved to help her.

"Not exactly," Holt's voice echoed through the empty diner. "The Bifrost frequency is still unresponsive, but we're getting some unusual readings from the landing site. I think you should go check it out. I'll ask some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to meet you there in case, well… in case it's not _him_." Everyone in the room knew who _he_ was.

"Thanks, Archie. I owe you big time." Snapping the phone closed and shoving the rest of the research into her bag, Jane ran out of the diner, Dr. Selvig and Darcy following close behind.

"So," Darcy began as she slid into the passenger's seat of the research van, "do you think it's him? Thor?"

"I don't know," Jane answered, starting the ignition. She flashed her friend a wide smile. "But I certainly hope so." The three founders of the Foster Research Institute sped away from the diner, toward a certain location in the desert. One hoping to be reunited with a close friend, one hoping to finally get some sleep, and one praying that whatever or whoever had caused the unusual readings wasn't dangerous.

Meanwhile, halfway across the world in a dark forest in Russia, two women ran for their lives, their bare feet slapping violently against the snow-encrusted ground. Both were clothed in bloodstained prison frocks, but physically could not have been more different in appearance. One looked to be about thirty years old, with wavy blond hair, deep green eyes, and lightly sun kissed skin; the other was a girl of about sixteen, with jet-black hair, icy blue eyes, and a complexion that almost matched the snowy landscape around her. However, the terrified expressions on their faces were almost identical as the shouts of their pursuers got closer and closer.

Suddenly, the younger girl slipped on a smooth patch of ice and cried out as her already battered body slammed against the ground. She carried in a sheath at her waist a silver sword, and the weight of the weapon was not helping her keep her balance at all. The blonde woman raced to help the girl regain her footing. Panting and terrified, they had only just begun to run again when a small group of armed guards burst into the clearing where the younger girl had tripped. One of the guards coldly raised his weapon, aimed it at the fleeing prisoners, and fired.

"Kaelyn!" The blond woman screamed, lunging at the raven-haired teenager and knocking her aside, out of the bullet's path. The two tumbled down the side of the hill, gasping as they landed repeatedly on old wounds and partially healed bruises. Coming to a crashing stop in a fortunately placed snowdrift, they wasted no time in untangling themselves, knowing the guards were close behind them.

Kaelyn, the young woman with dark hair, began running, reaching behind her for her friend's hand. However, her searching fingers met only cold, empty air. She slid to a stop, suddenly terrified. She turned to see her friend still collapsed in the snow, which was slowly turning a horrifying shade of red.

"MOTHER!" Kaelyn screamed, racing back to where her mother lay injured in the snow. "Mom, mom!" She knelt next to her, trying to stop the blood with her bare hands as it poured out of the gaping bullet wound in her mom's waist. "Don't worry, _máthair_," she used the Irish Gaelic word for mother, trying to comfort the woman and assure her that everything was going to be all right.

"There they are!" Kaelyn looked up to see the guards reach the top of the hill they had tumbled down. Before they could go any further, Kaelyn stood, furious, and whipped her hand out, as if throwing an invisible object at the people who had hurt her mother. The guards yelled in surprise as the limbs above their heads suddenly released their burden of snow and ice, sending an avalanche of freezing debris crashing down upon them.

Kaelyn knelt next to her mom, trying once again to staunch the flow of blood. Her eyes filled with tears as she realized that her mother had been shot knocking her out of the way. The bullet that was embedded in her mother's side was meant for her. Tears poured silently down Kaelyn's face to drip into the blood-soaked snow.

"Kaelyn," her mother rasped. She reached up to the necklace around her throat, attempting to give it to her daughter. "Kaelyn…you don't have much time." Kaelyn did her best to ignore her, denying any evidence that said her mother was not going to be all right. "Kaelyn, listen to me. You have to take this."

"No. No, I don't. Because you're going to be fine."

"Kaelyn, I'm sorry."

Kaelyn lost control of her tears and began to sob. "Don't say that! This is my fault. I…I…"

"Kaelyn, please." She met her daughter's eyes, willing her to understand. "You have to leave, to save them. You have to… Do you remember what to do?"

Kaelyn shook her head, smiling weakly through her tears. "I don't need to remember." She gently brushed a blond curl out of her other's eyes. "You'll be with me." She reached for the sword at her hilt. "We can go together." Even as she argued this, Kaelyn knew she was too weak to use the sword for more than one person, if she could wield it at all. She sobbed into her mother's shoulder.

"Kaelyn," She stroked her daughter's cheek. "I love you." She struggled to breathe, her chest rising and falling. And falling.

"Mom, no!" Kaelyn sobbed. "PLEASE!"

Clint Barton was in his nest, a hidden nook behind the some of the ceiling tiles of the Foster Institute. He had chosen this particular spot because it allowed him to keep an eye on the scientists' progress, and thereby follow his orders, without having to be seen or interact with anyone. He was not innately antisocial, but ever since New York, Barton had found that avoiding people was easier than dealing with their reactions to the man who had killed so many agents under Loki's control. Although Director Fury had assured all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that Agent Barton had not willingly switched sides, most people who didn't know Barton personally before the incident were still wary.

He was contemplating the events that had led him to be stuck in New Mexico instead of with his partner in Sudan when his phone vibrated violently, startling him.

"Barton." He answered curtly.

"Hey, Agent Barton," Clint almost sighed in relief. Although he and Archie Holt were nowhere near friends, he was one of the few scientists who didn't cringe or turn away when the agent walked into a room. "There's been some… anomalous readings coming from the landing site in the desert."

"Why are you telling me? I'm an agent, not a scholar."

"Well, I did tell Dr. Foster, but…well…I'm not so sure the readings are an indication of…well, the thing is…"

"Spit it out, Archie."

"There's a chance it might be a danger to Dr. Foster."

Clint sighed. Archie's crush on Jane Foster was the worst kept secret at the Institute. In fact, the only person who hadn't noticed was Jane herself. "Look, Archie, I know you're concerned but—"

"I don't think its Thor, Agent Barton. The gamma signature isn't right." Archie interrupted nervously. "And if it isn't him, we can't be sure if it is dangerous or not. Please, could you just meet her at the site, just in case?"

"Fine," Barton slipped out of his nest and began walking towards his car. "At least it will get me out of this place. Meanwhile, try to keep your crush under control." Agent Barton could almost hear Archie blushing as he hung up. _Well, _Barton thought to himself, _going on a wild goose chase is better than sitting here feeling guilty._ And with that, he hopped into the vehicle and drove to meet Dr. Foster at the landing site.

The sounds of men yelling and dogs barking forced Kaelyn to accept that her mother was never going to wake up. As the sounds drew closer and closer, Kaelyn took the locket from her mother's dead body and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead, saying goodbye for the last time. Then, retreating behind the walls she had built around her heart so many years ago, she wiped away her tears and once again, began to run.

Agent Barton arrived at the site a few minutes after Jane and her friends.

"Anything?" he asked, jumping out of the hummer.

The three scientists looked at him in surprise, having been too busy staring at the sky to notice his approach.

"Nothing." Dr. Selvig answered, walking over to stand by the agent. After both men had been possessed by the Tesseract, they had become a little closer. They were not friends, but they were brothers-in-arms. "There's been a slight increase in wind speed, but nothing like what happened last time. I think it was just a false al—"

"No, look!" Jane cried out. The sky above them was getting darker, and there was static in the air. She stared at the circular pattern in the dust with complete focus, waiting for the arrival of the man she knew would come.

The men were getting closer. She wouldn't be able to outrun them for much longer. Kaelyn frantically looked around her for a way out, anything she could use to escape. She slowed to a stop as she remembered the sword strapped to her waist. Clasping her mother's locket around her neck, she drew the sword from its sheath, praying to the empty sky above her that she had enough strength for one last miracle. As the men burst through the trees behind her, she drove the sword point into the ground in front of her. The guards watched in shock as a golden light surrounded her. It twisted around her crouched form and then disappeared, taking the young girl with it.

Across the world, in the middle of a desert in New Mexico, Jane Foster and her companions watched in anticipation as a young girl clutching he hilt of a sword materialized in front of them. The two strangers stared at each other for a moment, before the young woman collapsed, finally losing the battle to remain conscious. The scientists stared at each other in shock.

"That," Darcy stated, "is definitely not the god of thunder."


	2. Compromised

_Kaelyn was home. She didn't know how she had gotten there, but frankly she didn't care. It wasn't her most recent place of residence, but was rather the flat above a textile shop she had lived in when she was a toddler in Egypt. She was currently beating a rug with all the strength her four-year-old self could muster. Her mother was hovering over a bucket, washing the laundry. Giggling, Kaelyn pointed at her mother's shawl pinned to the clothesline. Reaching out with her mind, she caused it to fly off of the line and into her mother's face. She then burst out laughing as her mother chased her around their tiny house, threatening to tickle her. She was happy._

_The vision faded as soon as it had begun. Kaelyn looked around to find herself cowering in a corner, her mother holding her close and singing softly to calm her. There were men upstairs. Men in suits and men with guns. She started to cry, terrified that they would find her and take her away, the "demon witch" that the other children had feared so much. Suddenly, the closet door burst open and her mother was running, carrying her through the crowded market streets, away from the scary people who wanted to hurt them._

_She was now fifteen years old, living in a cottage in a forest in Germany. She was out gathering wood for the fireplace. She couldn't wait to sit in front of the warm fire, enjoying the scent of the burning wood and drinking hot tea with her mother. She suddenly realized that the smell she was imagining was real: something was burning. Kaelyn looked around and saw a trail of black smoke billowing into the sky. Dropping her firewood, she ran, praying that the fire was not coming from her house. She burst into the meadow where her house stood and screamed. The house was ablaze, their garden filled with masked strangers, and her mother lay bound and gagged on the ground, struggling to get free. Kaelyn ran to help her, only to be caught by two men she had not seen. She screamed for her mother as they were dragged in opposite directions._

Kaelyn awoke with a start. Her eyes darted around the crisp white hospital room, seeing not a government medical facility but the asylum she had just managed to escape from. Screaming in terror, she ripped out her IV and lunged out of the hospital bed, crawling across the tile floor to cower in a corner, like she and her mother had done so many times before.

Agent Barton sat in the waiting room, his cell pressed against his ear, as he looked over the medical report the doctor had just handed him. He scanned the list of injuries and felt a weird sense of déjà vu. Although it had been years since he had brought his partner into S.H.I.E.L.D., he still remembered her medical report and his disgust at what had been done to Natasha Romanoff. The report in front of him could have been an exact copy, except the name at the top read "Jane Doe". _I still can't understand why anyone would do something so horrible to a little girl. _

A piercing scream suddenly broke his reverie and echoed through the empty hallway, followed by a series of loud crashes. Dropping the report, Agent Barton ran into the emergency ward and found Jane Doe's room. Upon entering, however, he was thrown back against the viewing window with such force that it shattered. Ignoring the glass cutting into his skin, he jumped up and pulled a knife from where it was concealed in his boot. He scanned the area for his attacker, but the only person in sight was Jane Doe, curled up in a fetal position with her hands covering her ears and her eyes squeezed shut. He realized that she was the cause of his injuries, and although he wasn't quite sure how she had managed to push him away with such strength, he knew what had caused her reaction. Having dealt with Natasha for years, he cursed himself for not being cautious around the mysterious girl. Post-traumatic stress could be triggered by even the tiniest movements, so bursting through the door like that had probably not been the best idea. Sheathing his weapon and holding his empty hands in front of him, he slowly approached the terrified patient.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." He stopped as her eyes snapped open and stared at him in panic. "I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Agent Barton, and I'm here to help you."

She slowly began to calm down as he spoke, until he was finally able to kneel next to her, careful not to get too close. She slowly removed her hands from her ears and allowed him to help her back into the hospital bed as the doctors finally arrived on scene. Looking her in the eyes to make sure she understood him, Agent Barton began again.

"My name is Agent Barton. I—"

"Barton." The girl spoke quietly. She seemed to be struggling to understand him. He was about to try another language when she spoke again, a little stronger this time. "Agent Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye. Sharpshooter for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, commonly known as S.H.I.E.L.D." Clint stared at the girl in shock as she recited his personal information. There was no way she could know that, unless she had access to his files.

"How do you know about me?" He demanded as the doctors began pumping chemicals into her replaced IV. She was struggling to stay awake. "Tell me!" He ordered firmly.

Reaching for the locket still clasped around her neck, she opened the small metal door, removed a tiny USB from where the picture should have been, and placed it in Hawkeye's hand.

"Compromised…" she managed to say before slipping into unconsciousness.


	3. Resignation

Hey guys. So after many months of working on this story, I realize that I do not know enough about the Marvel universe to be able to write this. I do, however, want to share my basic idea with you, especially those of you who've read my other story, Tears of a Frost Giant and want to see how Sigyn and Loki have their happy ending.

My basic idea for this story was that the girl, Kaelyn, is Loki's daughter. Her mother Sarah who was 'killed' in the first chapter is actually Sigyn, who had to fake her own death sixteen earth-years before in order to protect her unborn child. So, my entire story revolved around Kaelyn dealing with keeping her identity a secret and dealing with meeting Thor and constantly hearing about how evil Loki is. Not to mention the trauma that comes with reading the Norse legends and discovering that, according to legend, everyone in her family either dies or is brutally tortured. Not exactly an easy thing to come to terms with, especially when she thinks there is nothing she can do to stop it.

Eventually, Kaelyn stumbles across a memorial set up for Agent Coulson. She recognizes his photo as the man who helped her and her mother escape. She tells the others, and soon everyone is angry at Director Fury, for lying to them about Coulson's death and for choosing not to rescue Kaelyn and her mother from the Gauntlet (Coulson had rescued them against orders). Anyway, Banner leaves the room because he's so angry, and Thor follows to ensure no one gets hurt. At this point, Agent Coulson and Sarah, Kaelyn's mom, walk in. Kaelyn is overjoyed to see her mother, but insists that she has to tell her something, that it cannot wait. She is about to tell her that Thor is there, and they have to leave if they want to remain a secret, but as she starts to speak, Thor returns. He recognizes Sigyn, and asks her why she disappeared sixteen years ago. It takes them a minute, but eventually the pieces fall into place and Thor and the others realize who Kaelyn is.

This is where I have no idea what to do next, because I do not read the comics and I'm afraid to mess things up. I had the idea that Kaelyn could be Valkyrie, but I just don't know enough to write a really good story. I do know that I want the Laufeyson family to have their happy ending, but I have no idea how to get there.

So, here's the deal: If you want this story, PM me and I'll hand it over. I think it's a creative idea, especially for Loki fans, but I'm not the right person to write it up.


End file.
